Posted on June 20, 2017 at 17:02Hi,
1. Tools:
-CubeMX is a great tool to see all pheripherals (hw) for STM32 MCU - just install it and run to select your MCU and generate hw drivers (app skeleton).
-CubeMX can enable FREERTOS on the board - I mean you can generated code (app skeleton) based on FREERTOS
-CubeMX is able to generate code for a few IDE/Compilers (Keil, etc) - select one of them during app skeleton generation. I use Keil v5. Free version supports up to 32kB of code.
2. ST-LINK Utility is required to flash the boards - usually the utility is called from IDE when you decide to re-flash the boards. Of course a ST-LINK programmer is required. You can use any cheap version from ebay, or buy original one.
3. Debugger comes to mind (a part of the ST-link programmer). Plus your imagination (you can output data on a serial interface, blink a led, whatever).
Cube and ST-LInk are available on ST.com (just google), Keil IDE can be found on keil.com (registration required in both cases).
Bogdan